I’ve been dreaming about a cozy little bookshop for an embarrassing number of years. The kind with mismatched chairs near a fireplace, a cat asleep on the counter, good tea, and shelves bursting with books waiting to be read. The Cozy Counter is that dream, slowly becoming real.
For now, it lives here — a blog, a Pango bookshop, and a YouTube channel built around the things I actually spend my time doing: reading, sewing, crocheting, gaming, and figuring out how to live more deliberately and less frantically than I used to.
I’m Nikki Grace. I’m forty, a veteran, a philosophy student in my final semester at Oregon State, and a maker of things. I grew up in upstate New York near Lake Ontario and have spent years yearning for four seasons, gloomier skies and the smell of rain on fallen leaves. I’m currently in Texas, planning a move to Pittsburgh in 2027, where The Cozy Counter will eventually become a real physical space — an eclectic secondhand bookshop with a self-serve tea station, a back room for book clubs and yarn circles, a truly cozy third space.
This corner of the internet is where I document the cozy, the handmade, the well-read, and the occasionally chaotic. There’s no algorithm chasing happening here. Just real life, as warmly as I can live it.
Pull up a chair. The kettle’s on.
A few things you’ll find here:
- Book reviews and reading life
- Sewing projects — clothes, home goods, and a vintage Kenmore that needs rescuing
- Fiber crafting (I just finished my first real crochet project and I’m insufferably proud of it)
- Cozy gaming, including a Stardew Valley perfection file I am deeply committed to
- The slow build toward a real bookshop in Pittsburgh
The Cozy Counter 